One of the great secrets to effective management of people is the ability to recognize that if you want to increase productivity you have to have a system to measure productivity. That has led to the bastardization of the axiom, lately to mean, measuring every minute of the day of an employee. Especially those that are connected to the, gasp internet via one of those new fangled devices called computers. Which leads to today’s Courant article, headlined: “Amazon? eBay? State Says It Better Be Work-Related: Employee Internet Restrictions Difficult To Enforce; Private Sector Struggles As Well.”

Well file that under the thick folder I call slow slide to economic oblivion.

From the Courant:

State workers are allowed to send their co-workers an e-mail announcing a fellow employee’s wedding, baby shower or birthday party. But they can’t use a state computer to read a newspaper online, even if they’re on their lunch break.

Connecticut’s 53,000 state employees are expected to adhere to a state policy that says the Internet and e-mail can be used only for work-related purposes.

State employees can view an online newspaper, for instance, but only if it relates to work. They can visit their union’s website, but they can’t distribute union information by e-mail, according the “Acceptable Use of State Systems Policy,” which was last updated in May 2006.

Yet a recent audit found that some computers at the state Department of Environmental Protection were used to visit unauthorized Internet sites during 2004 and 2005. The audit found that some computer users routinely visited Internet sites to shop, look for mail-order brides, plan trips and read news, among other unauthorized uses.

The fact that state workers are using the Internet for personal use may not be surprising to private-sector employees, who often have more flexibility concerning the personal use of company-owned computers. After all, what’s the difference between spending a few minutes at Amazon.com and talking to your son or daughter on your office phone as long as you get your work done properly?

But in state government, not only are certain websites forbidden, so, too, is sending or receiving personal e-mail.

“From Day One, I told my brother, my friends and family: Don’t e-mail me on the job,” said a state worker who asked not to be identified as he ate lunch Monday at Bushnell Park in Hartford.

You know what this means right? There’s some other state worker, assigned to troll through the Internet access logs of thousands of state computers, looking for obvious signs that a person has broken the rules and went to say ebay. Except that maybe going to ebay might have been job related since ebay reflects the current market price for most things. Uh-oh, better make sure the state employee snooper gets special training to determine when there’s a pattern, and they need potty breaks so make that 2 snooper employees per 1000 snoopees and they need a supervisor, and a budget and pretty soon you have a fiefdom of major non productivity costing we the tax payers millions.

And for what? To keep state workers happy and productive. A trip in the wayback machine suggests otherwise:

You’ve Got Mail: What’s Wrong With Government Policies

Sheila Chunis works for Connecticut as a state Social Services employee. She also has a son who serves in Afghanistan with the Connecticut Army National Guard. In typical bureaucratic fashion, the behavior of employees and state computers has spawned a series of rules about what state employees can and can’t do on those state computers. A rule enacted last May, according to the Journal Inquirer, specified what employees could do with email:
Not only did it prohibit state workers from using their state e-mail address for personal use while on company time, it also prohibited accessing private e-mail accounts on the Internet.

State workers were allowed, however, to read e-mails from their children’s teachers or exchange e-mail messages with co-workers to plan social events, such as a baby shower or retirement party. (source: Journal Inquirer)

This rule followed a scandal involving Veterans Affairs employees. It’s reasonable to expect that government employees not misuse state resources. Focusing, however, on the minutia of what emails that they can and can’t read and send is simply ridiculous. The policy exists simply because computer use is easier to track. And tracking computer use as a measure of productivity is the wrong thing to focus on. Fortunately, Governor Rell stepped in and clarified the policy to a degree:

On Thursday afternoon Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced that the e-mail policy for state employees would change to allow them to send and receive messages from their workstation to deployed relatives in the military … “Separation due to military service is difficult on everyone, and we want to do all we can to support our troops and their families,” Rell said in making the announcement. “This change will allow those who are bravely serving overseas to stay in touch with their loved ones.”

Under the policy change, employees can now read and send e-mails to immediate family members serving overseas during their lunch periods and other breaks after first notifying supervisors. (source: Journal Inquirer)

This change does not go far enough. In an age when multi-tasking dominates the information technology productivity gains, it’s time that bureaucrats stop looking for ways to treat their employees like lab rats, and focus on the performance of the job and service to the public. It is counter-intuitive for government officials to bemoan the state of the social networks that bind communities and then create an employment environment that seeks to cut off interaction between families.

Sounds like a happy and productive state worker right? IN essence the state is saying yak away on your own cell phone, read the print newspaper while taking coffee and cigarette breaks, but don’t take 5 minutes to look at the New York Times online while you are at your desk. So much for understanding productivity.

The courant continues:

Larry Dorman, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 4, which represents 34,000 state and municipal workers, said the ubiquity of the Internet means it’s time for the state to reconsider its policies.

The Internet and e-mail have evolved into a standard form of communication that is often more used and more reliable than the telephone, Dorman said.

“As a union, as an advocate for workers, we urge our workers to employ common sense and to remember that the equipment they’re using belongs to the employer,” he said.

The state’s so-called zero-tolerance policy is unrealistic, Dorman said.

“Obviously, you don’t want to see someone using a website that’s illegal or distracting from the work that has to be done,” he said. But what about someone who’s taking their coffee or lunch break?

“Instead of taking a 5- or 10-minute break - what if the worker stays on the computer and looks at eBay or goes to Mapquest.com to get directions to an after-work party - is that a situation that merits discipline?” Dorman said.

In a way the state policy shouldn’t be much of a surprise. If you spend any tim on a state web site, its clear that the department who put it together has never been allowed to go to other sites, since they are uniformly hard to use, difficult to search and lack essential information. And that’s the way the state powers that be want it.

source:: Cournat, Amazon? eBay? State Says It Better Be Work-Related Employee Internet Restrictions Difficult To Enforce; Private Sector Struggles As Well, By JANICE PODSADA , July 17, 2007